Israeli Channel 12 reported on Wednesday that the Haredi Shas party does not rule out cooperating with Yesh Atid leader Gadi Eisenkot and later joining a government led by him, should he succeed in forming one.
The channel quoted an unnamed Shas official as saying: "If Eisenkot is smart, he will form a government and not occupy the important positions for us, and if there is a reasonable conscription law, we might join later."
Exit poll results
The statement comes as updates to exit poll samples showed a tie between the camps of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Eisenkot, with 51 seats each, compared to 18 seats for Arab parties.
According to an update from the Israeli Broadcasting Authority sample, the Likud party led by Netanyahu topped the list with 27 seats, followed by Yesh Atid led by Eisenkot with 21, then the Meretz party led by Naftali Bennett with 13 seats, and the Joint List with 11.
Seat distribution
The Democrats party also secured 9 seats, Yisrael Beiteinu 8, and the Unified Arab List 7, while Shas, United Torah Judaism, Jewish Power, and Religious Zionism parties each obtained 6 seats.
With these figures, neither Netanyahu's nor Eisenkot's camps possess the majority needed to form the government, which requires 61 seats out of 120 in the Knesset.
High voter turnout
On Tuesday evening, the Israeli Election Committee announced that the voting rate reached 77.7 percent, an increase of 7.1 percent over the 2022 elections, marking the highest since 1999.
Exit poll samples do not represent the official election results, while vote counting continues.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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